INDIANAPOLIS—Big brother is a millionaire, an NBA star, a former first-team All-American and one of the greatest NCAA Tournament heroes of the modern era. Little brother is a college kid, a second-team All-America, only just now sliding into his team’s scoring lead.

This is Seth Curry’s chance, though. He can boldly go where no Curry has gone before. With their 71-61 victory Friday night in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region semifinal over Michigan State, Curry and the Duke Blue Devils advanced to an Elite Eight matchup against top-seeded Louisville. Should Duke win, Curry will play in a Final Four.

As Seth Curry fights for a spot in the Final Four, he wouldn't be interested in throwing that success into big brother Steph's face. (AP Photo)

It would be the perfect opportunity to show up his big brother Steph, the high-scoring guard for the Golden State Warriors, the guy who led mid-major Davidson on its improbable Elite Eight run in 2008 by averaging 32 points in games against powers Gonzaga, Georgetown, Wisconsin and Kansas. Steph fell short when teammate Jason Richards’ last-second shot rolled off the rim in the Elite Eight against KU. Father Dell lost two NCAA Tournament games at Virginia Tech. This is the kind of moment a little brother lives his entire 22 years to see.

“Nah, not really,” Seth Curry said. “What he did was a great run with Davidson. Our expectations are different at Duke. That’s probably the only thing we don’t compete in.

“I wouldn’t try to throw it in his face or anything like that. Like I said, they have different expectations than we do. It’s a totally different situation.”

Well, that certainly was a disappointing way to end a Friday, but it was probably Curry’s only failure from the time he entered Lucas Oil Stadium in mid-evening until he departed after midnight. He scored 29 points against a variety of frustrated Michigan State defenders, hit 6-of-9 from 3-point range, made all seven of his free throws and essentially did the whole Curry-in-the-tournament thing.

“Seth was at a different level than anybody on the court offensively,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

While the other six Devils were going 1-of-9 from 3-point range and sharing a mere dozen field goals among them, Curry was wrecking everyone sent his way.

At one point, freshman guard Gary Harris turned to the MSU bench and gave a look of frustration that said: How do you guard this guy?

“He just made shots. Simple as that,” MSU guard Keith Appling said. “The plays they ran for him were just right and he came up hard and just knocked the shots down. That made it tough for us the whole game.”

Of course, it was more complicated than that. So much goes into Curry having such a night, from things Duke did properly to things Michigan State botched. And, according Spartans coach Tom Izzo, perhaps some things the officials got wrong. “They kept calling things I didn’t agree with.”

There was one play that crystallized all of this. It developed as the two teams were locked in the sixth—and, as it turned out, the last—tie of the game. With the clock ticking toward the 17-minute mark of the second half, Duke had forward Ryan Kelly set a side ball screen for Curry toward the left of the court. Appling was guarding Curry, then and got hung up on the screen. Izzo raged that it was a moving pick. As Curry faced up to the basket, 6-10 MSU power forward Adreian Payne had ducked away from the screener to cut off a potential drive to the basket.

And then it happened: Kelly began to cut toward the basket, and Payne noticed that movement and turned to cover him. This was just the opening Curry needed. He jumped up and drained a 3-pointer that made it 41-38 Duke. The Blue Devils led the rest of the way.

Understand, Curry already had 20 points in the books by that point, more than half Duke’s total. He’d made his first two 3-point attempts after halftime. Kelly had scored six, on his way to being held without a 3-point goal for the fifth consecutive game.

“When Seth and I get in wide ball screens and dribble handoffs, that’s a tough guard for most teams,” Kelly said. “Seth’s been killing it off those things. He’ll continue to do so.”

Kelly recognized his movement was essential to opening Curry for the shot. No part of that play is unimportant. It is all about forcing opponents to make decisions about what might cause the least damage. Surprisingly, after all the Spartans had seen, they chose to allow Curry another open 3.

“By that point, I was in a good rhythm already,” Curry said. “If I had any opening, I was going to shoot it. I turned off the screen, and their big didn’t show as hard. I knew they had a tendency to relax at times. Coming off the screen, I had a look.”

Immediately after that 3-pointer, Krzyzewski called timeout and tore into the Blue Devils. It was odd to see such an emotional display after such a beautifully executed display of offensive basketball, but Coach K was endeavoring to ensure he didn’t see any such thing from the Spartans.

He wanted Duke to start playing defense the way it had against Creighton six days earlier, the way it surely had not in allowing MSU to shoot 50 percent in the first 23 minutes of this one.

“Seth was scoring on every possession, and it was almost like we felt we could relax on defense,” Krzyzewski said. “And when you got a guy hot like that, and you can put a couple defensive stops with it, then you're going to get separation. And we weren't doing that.

“So it was basically to remind them this kid is not going to be able to do this the whole second half. But while he is, let's pick up the intensity on the defensive end. And I thought we did after that.”

MSU scored eight points in the next nine minutes and fell behind by double digits. It never got better from there.

Curry now has averaged 24 points through three tournament games, not quite his big brother’s run but still more than a third of what Duke is scoring as a team. If the Blue Devils win Sunday vs. Louisville and march on to Atlanta, there’s a good chance he will be named the Midwest Region most outstanding player. That’s something Steph did, too, but he did it while losing that final game.